Godzilla (Heisei)

Godzilla (Japanese: ゴジラ, Hepburn: Gojira), or sometimes known as Heisei Godzilla (Japanese: 平成ゴジラ, Hepburn: Heisei Gojira) is a giant monster, or kaiju, and the main protagonist of the Heisei era of the Godzilla franchise.

One of the last living members of a prehistoric species of dinosaurs called Godzillasaurus that used to inhabit Lagos Island, Godzilla was exposed to a massive dose of radiation through being teleported to Bering Sea by humans from the year 2204 and subsequent crash of Soviet nuclear submarine in 1970s, mutating him into an enormous atomic beast single-mindedly set on completely destroying Japan and locating other living members of his kind.

Over the course of his series, Godzilla evolved from being purely the main antagonistic force to being anti-hero merely happening to save humanity by defeating other monsters. He ultimately met his end in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah after absorbing the uranium deposits from Baas Island, dying over the course of days as his body began melting down, being succeeded by Godzilla Junior.

When Godzilla vs. Biollante had been released, Godzilla at the time was commonly called the New Godzilla (Japanese: 新ゴジラ, Hepburn: Shin Gojira). This name would be used to dub Godzilla Junior's adult form in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995).^[1] For Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, the Baby Godzilla's species is named "Godzillasaurus", a combination of "Godzilla" and the suffix -saurus, derived from the Greek term "saûros", meaning "lizard" in English.^[2]

In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, after absorbing massive amounts of radiation, Godzilla reaches a burning state that causes his body to slowly melt down. Although it is usually known as Burning Godzilla (Japanese: バーニングゴジラ, Hepburn: Bāningu Gojira), some concept art refers to this form of Godzilla as Red Godzilla (Japanese: 赤きゴジラ, Hepburn: Akaki Gojira).^[3]

In the continuity of the Heisei series, Godzilla is the second member of his kind to appear, succeeding the original Godzilla that attacked Tokyo in 1954 and was subsequently killed by the Oxygen Destroyer. Both individuals were originally of a species of theropod dinosaur called Godzillasaurus that survived the K-T Extinction, and were living in the Marshall Islands. While one Godzillasaurus would go on to be mutated by the Castle Bravo thermonuclear test and become the Godzilla that would attack in 1954, the other would be living on the island of Lagos in 1944 when Japanese and American forces fought there during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in World War II. Stumbling into the middle of a naval exchange between the two military forces, the Godzillasaurus drove the Americans away, inadvertantly saving the Japanese soldiers, only to be grievously injured by naval gunfire.

Soon after, a group of time travelers from the 23rd century arrived on Lagos Island. As part of a scheme to prevent Japan from becoming a global economic superpower in the future, the time travelers sought to erase Godzilla from history, seeing him as the main obstacle in their plan. They teleported the Godzillasaurus to the Bering Sea, believing it would prevent it from being mutated by Castle Bravo. However, the time travelers misinterpreted this Godzillasaurus as being the same individual that would become the 1954 Godzilla; this new Godzillasaurus would remain in a comatose state beneath the sea until a Soviet nuclear submarine crashed into its vicinity in the 1970s. The radiation from the submarine ended up mutating the dinosaur into a new Godzilla anyway. In 1984, Godzilla would be roused to the surface by a volcanic eruption, setting in motion the events of The Return of Godzilla (1984).

Godzilla makes his first appearance when the eruption draws him to the surface near Daikoku Island. His emergence is witnessed by the crew of the Japanese fishing vessel Yahata Maru, and though Godzilla ignores the ship, sea lice mutated and enlarged from feeding on his irradiated blood invade it and slaughter the crew. Godzilla later attacks a Soviet nuclear submarine, which causes an international crisis across Japan. Godzilla finally arrives in Japan, coming ashore to feed on a nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. His attack is stalled, however, when he is distracted by a homing signal from a passing flock of birds. Godzilla attacks again later that night, this time rampaging through the heart of Tokyo. He obliterates a JSDF attack force that attempts to stop him, and then battles the Super X, an advanced aerial vehicle. The Super X nearly kills Godzilla using radiation-numbing cadmium armaments, but a radioactive lightning storm caused by an accidental orbital nuclear strike by the Soviets revitalizes him. Godzilla destroys the Super X, but is then lured out of Tokyo and to Mount Mihara on Ōshima Island by an artifical homing signal. A subsequent controlled volcanic eruption buries Godzilla alive in the mountain.

Samples of Godzilla's DNA are recovered from the ruins his rampage, falling into the hands of multiple organizations and leading to the creation of an Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB) and a plant-hybrid entity known as Biollante. Five years later, Godzilla is released from Mt. Mihara by terrorists from the genetics corporation BioMajor, and immediately begins attacking Japan. He confronts Biollante in her rose form at the Lake Ikeda laboratory of Dr. Genishiro Shiragami, defeating her easily. Godzilla then begins making his way to Tsuruga to feed on a nuclear power plant, only to be redirected to Osaka by the psychic Miki Saegusa. During his rampage through Osaka, Godzilla is successfully injected with a dose of the ANEB by Colonel Goro Gondo. The ANEB does not immediately take effect, but a second battle with a regenerated Biollante at Wakasa Bay heats up Godzilla's body temperature, allowing the ANEB to weaken him. While Biollante disintigrates, Godzilla weakly trudges his way back into the ocean.

The ANEB leaves Godzilla in a semi-comatose state for two years, with the JSDF constantly monitoring him. The time travelers finally arrive in 1992 Japan in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) to enact their plot to eliminate Godzilla; though they don't prevent his existence, their actions do lead to the creation of King Ghidorah, a genetically engineered three-headed hydra created from the DNA of an alien life form found on Venus in the distant future. Ghidorah is unleashed upon Japan to destroy it, but Godzilla is purged of the ANEB when he destroys and feeds off of a nuclear submarine deployed by the Teiyo Group. The sub's radiation energizes Godzilla and further increases his size, and he makes landfall in Hokkaido where he fights and kills Ghidorah in a valley. Godzilla then rampages from Sapporo to Tokyo, where he is confronted by Mecha-King Ghidorah, a cyborg version of Ghidorah piloted by the benevolent time traveler Emmy Kano. Mecha-King Ghidorah carries Godzilla out to sea, with Emmy escaping and the cyborg being destroyed in the process.

Only a few short months later, a meteoroid crashes in the Izu–Ogasawara Trench near where Godzilla is resting, rousing him to the surface. He comes upon the egg of the primordial insect deity Mothra as it is being transferred to Japan from Infant Island by boat, and witnessses it hatch into Mothra's larval form. Godzilla attacks Mothra unprovoked, and nearly kills her until Battra, Mothra's dark clone, intervenes. While Mothra escapes in the confusion, Battra pulls Godzilla into an underwater brawl, where stray blasts from Godzilla's atomic breath and Battra's prism eye beams create a giant crack on the Philippine Sea Plate. The two monsters are swallowed up by the fissure, but do not die, and instead push their way through Earth's mantle before emerging from the crust. Godzilla emerges from Mount Fuji and decimates a JSDF force that attempts to slow his advance. He makes his way to Yokohama to confront Mothra and Battra, who have evolved into their imago forms. Godzilla disrupts an airborne duel between the two and overpowers them both, prompting the moths to forge an alliance against him. Mothra and Battra immobilize Godzilla with a plethora of energy-based attacks, and then carry him away from the city. Godzilla fatally injures Battra mid-flight, forcing Mothra to drop them both into the ocean.

Godzilla remains in the ocean for a year before finally reappearing in 1994, after intercepting a bioacoustic signal from Adanoa Island, a landmass in the Bering Strait once used by the Soviet Union as a dumping ground for radioactive waste. He finds the source of the signal, a living Godzillasaurus egg, being smuggled away by scientists from the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC), a special branch of the United Nations designed to study and combat Godzilla and other monsters. After battling and incapacitating Rodan, a pterosaur mutated by the island's radioactive contamination, Godzilla pursues the egg to the UNGCC's headquarters in Kyoto. En route, he is confronted by Mechagodzilla, a massive combat automaton resembling Godzilla himself created by the UNGCC from the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah and controlled by its military branch, G-Force. Mechagodzilla's large assortment of weaponry grievously injures Godzilla, but he manages to overcome the mecha by using his nuclear pulse to short it out. He then arrives in Kyoto where the egg has hatched into Godzilla Junior. Sensing the smaller Godzillasaurus is afraid of his presence, Godzilla leaves the city and returns to the ocean. G-Force later lures Godzilla into a second confrontation with Mechagodzilla in Makuhari using Junior as bait, and Godzilla is soon overpowered by the mecha, which disables his locomotion by electrically rupturing a second brain in his hips and then brings him to the brink of death with a merciless barrage of energy weapons. Rodan, who was earlier defeated by Mechagodzilla, attempts to flee in the confusion, but Mechagodzilla shoots him down onto Godzilla. Rodan's radiation promptly revives and further energizes Godzilla, granting him a more powerful variant of his atomic breath which he uses to obliterate Mechagodzilla. Now unopposed, Godzilla locates Junior and expresses relief at finally encountering another of his kind. Despite Junior initially being fearful of Godzilla, Miki Saegusa telepathically urges him from afar to follow Godzilla. Adopting Junior as his own, Godzilla departs with him into the sea.

In 1995, Godzilla and his son, LittleGodzilla, having settles on Baas Island, a lush island in the South Pacific that Godzilla often visited due to its close proximity and similarities to his former home on Lagos. He raises Junior there in relative peace for a year. A group of UNGCC researchers, including Miki, come to the island to try enact Project T, the placement of a telepathic amplifier on the back of Godzilla's head that can be used to control the beast and keep it away from Japan. The operation is interrupted by the arrival of SpaceGodzilla, a psionic clone of Godzilla created from samples of his DNA, either from Biollante or Mothra, being sent off into space and then fusing with an extraterrestrial crystalline entity of unknown origin. Intent on killing its progenitor and conquering Earth, SpaceGodzilla initially attacks Junior to lure Godzilla into a confrontation, then quickly overwhelms Godzilla with a myriad of psychic attacks. SpaceGodzilla then imprisons Junior in a cage of crystals, and the enraged Godzilla, after failing to free his son, pursues SpaceGodzilla to Fukuoka. He arrives to find that SpaceGodzilla has transformed the city into a massive fortress of crystals, and his enemy locked in a battle with M.O.G.U.E.R.A., a new G-Force mecha built to replace Mechagodzilla. Godzilla and M.O.G.U.E.R.A. join forces in a protracted battle with SpaceGodzilla, taking dual advantage of SpaceGodzilla reliance on the crystals and Fukuoka Tower as an energy source to cripple the creature. While M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is damaged beyond repair in the battle, Godzilla ultimately overcomes SpaceGodzilla, incinerating him with a supercharged atomic blast. With Junior freed by SpaceGodzilla's death, Godzilla peacefully leaves Japan to reunite with his son.

Sometime later, in 1996, a volcanic eruption on Baas Island reveals a hidden deposit of high-purity uranium which destroys the island and further irradiates Godzilla and Junior. While Junior evolves into a larger, adolescent state, Godzilla's heart, analogous to a nuclear reactor, experiences abnormal nuclear destabilization from the huge influx of radiation. He begins to undergo gradual nuclear meltdown, with his body developing glowing, lava-like rashes and leaving his atomic breath in a perpetual supercharged state. Godzilla attacks Hong Kong in a frenzied, agonized state. The UNGCC learns that his meltdown is terminal and will inevitably cause him to explode with enough force to ignite the Earth's atmosphere. Efforts are made by G-Force to stabilize Godzilla's condition using advanced freezing weapons, but the situation is further escalated by the sudden appearance of Destoroyah, a species of Precambrian creatures mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer, which wreak havoc through Tokyo. The UNGCC organizes a meeting between Godzilla and Destoroyah by once again using Junior as bait, hoping that Destoroyah will kill Godzilla before he can reach meltdown. Junior ends up defeating Destoroyah himself before Godzilla arrives, and the two reunite. The reunion is interrupted by Destoroyah, which evolves into its monstrous final form and ambushes the two at Haneda Airport. Godzilla witnesses Destoroyah kill Junior, sending him into a rage-induced warpath. After temporarily driving Destoroyah away, Godzilla tries and fails to revive Junior, and his grief over his only companion's death accelerates the meltdown. Destoroyah returns, but Godzilla and G-Force overwhelm and kill it. Now alone, Godzilla starts to meltdown, but G-Force uses its freezer weapons to minimize the damage. The expected thermonuclear blast is prevented, but Godzilla himself perishes as his body disintigrates, releasing his radioactive properties into Tokyo and rendering uninhabitable. However, Junior's dead body ends up absorbing the radiation, restoring him to life and causing him to mutate into a fully grown Godzilla, ultimately succeeding his father.

• The Return of Godzilla (1984)
  • Godzilla 1985 (1985)
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

• Chibi Godzilla Raids Again (2024, cameo)

• Definitive Edition: The Perfect Godzilla Giant Monster Super Encyclopedia (2016; only on the front cover of the book with other Godzilla specimens)^[4]
• Picturebook of Godzilla & All Monsters (2021; only on the front cover of the book with other Godzilla specimens)^[5]
• Godzilla and Toho Tokusatsu: Official Mook Vol.0 (2022; only on the back cover)^[6]
• Godzilla and Toho Tokusatsu: Official Mook Vol.15 (2023; only on the front cover with Mechagodzilla II)^[7]

• Super Godzilla
• Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (as Godzilla 1990s)
• Godzilla: Save the Earth (as Godzilla 1990s)
• Godzilla: Unleashed (as Godzilla 1990s)
• Godzilla On Monster Island
• Monster Strike
• Godzilla (2014 video game)
• Godzilla: Kaiju Collection
• Godzilla Battle Line
• GigaBash

In 1992, an elderly Japanese woman came across a Godzilla suit that washed up on a beach while on a walk in the town of Lake Okutama. She later alerted Toho about the suit, and Toho then retrieved the missing suit. It was claimed by an American news report that a group of unknown thieves stole the Godzilla suit from one of the Toho warehouses, while Toho was making Godzilla vs. Mothra. The suit involved in the theft was the suit used in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991).^[8]

In 1995, a statue of the Heisei Godzilla was built and displayed at the Hibiya Godzilla Square, but in 2016, it was replaced by a 3-metre (9.8-foot; 300-centimetre; 120-inch) tall statue of Shin Godzilla. The Heisei Godzilla statue was moved inside the Toho Cinemas Hibiya building.^[9]

In 1999, a 8.75-metre (28.7-foot; 875-centimetre; 344-inch) tall Heisei Godzilla slide was built at Kurihama Flower World, though it has the outward appearance of a statue. This statue was constructed for children under the age of 12.^[10]

On December 8, 2014, an announcement was made that the Godzilla head would be constructed on the 8th floor terrace of the Hotel Gracery Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan.^[11] The construction work of the Godzilla head was completed on April 10, 2015 and is currently located at the Shinjuku Toho Building in Kabukichō, Shinjuku.

In February 2022, Coolprops announced that they would release an official life-sized bust of the Heisei Godzilla, in collaboration with Toho.^[12]

• Godzilla (Shōwa)
• Shin Godzilla (character)
• Godzilla Earth
• Godzilla (Takashi Yamazaki)